Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, made clear that he was "unable to
commit" to capping the cost of care for the elderly, even though he would
like to.

He also disclosed that, if the Government did go ahead and limit the amount individual would have to pay for care, the figure could be set as high as £100,000.

That figure would be almost three times the amount recommended in the landmark Dilnot Commission report into tackling Britain’s looming care crisis.

Mr Lansley also made clear that while the Government supported the principle of capping the cost of care, as recommended by the Dilnot report, there could be no guarantee that the money for such a scheme will be found.

He said there were “immense financial pressures” and many other priorities and any decision will now await George Osborne’s spending review expected late next year or in 2014.

Setting out a white paper on the Government's plans to reform social care he confirmed that, from 2015, pensioners moving into nursing homes will be able to borrow money from the Government.

He also disclosed that there would be a new ban on carers being paid by the minute in order to eliminate a culture of “clock-watching” which has seen frail elderly people’s care squeezed into short 15-minute slots.

An official Government commission chaired by the Oxford economist Andrew Dilnot last year recommended a new national system of paying for care which would cap the amount anyone pays at between £25,000 and £50,000 – with a preferred option of £35,000.

He also called for the means threshold to be raised to around £100,000 so that fewer people would be forced to pay.

Speaking with Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care minister, Mr Lansley gave Government support for the first time to the principles of the Dilnot report.

But he said that it was impossibole to commit “at this stage”.

“I’m not going to preempt the outcome of the spending review but the fact is that we are in a situation with a structural deficit we have to eliminate, we have immense financial pressures.

“I think the Dilnot Commission sets out a funding model we support and want to implement and we will look positively for ways to do that.”

He said that it “may entail” extra public money which would have to be balanced with other priorities.

“I think what we have to do is not anticipate failure but work for success.”

The “deferred payment” scheme for care homes was first proposed by a Royal Commission more than a decade ago. Since then, councils have been able to offer interest-free loans to people who face having to sell their home to pay for care.

But their availability varies significantly throughout the country. Most local authorities will only provide loans to those with few savings and, in the past year, about 8,500 have been offered.

The new scheme will order councils to provide the loans. They will be able to charge “nominal” interest – probably in line with inflation – so that it does not cost them money. The loans will be repaid after someone dies, either by selling their home or by the heirs re-mortgaging the property.

Details will be negotiated between the Government and local authorities in the coming months, and the level of interest payments is likely to prove crucial.

The Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the Government had adopted a “pick and mix approach” to the Dilnot proposals and accused them of giving Lords reform a far higher priority than the crisis in care.

“With no answer on the money the white paper fails the crucial task, it is half a policy.

“The proposals he has set out today are in danger of appearing meaningless and may in fact raise false hopes in older people, their carers and families.”

Mr Burnham said that the Government’s decision to produce a unilateral report on funding – rather than as a result of talks with Labour – were because Mr Lansley had been “thwarted” by the Chancellor.

He added: “The Government is ducking one of the biggest issues of our time … They have made their choice – they have placed Lords reform at the top of the agenda and consigned the care of older people to the long grass.”

Mark Ellerby, managing director of Bupa Care Services, said: “We welcome many of the proposals outlined in the White Paper but the Government has ducked the fundamental question about how to sustainably fund a social care system that has been chronically underfunded for over a decade.

“This was an opportunity for the Government to fix once and for all a broken system but the Progress Report fails to acknowledge the current funding crisis.”